On a treelined suburban sidewalk, a man wearing a white mask and blue coveralls steps out from behind a hedge.
  • The flyers for the Decibel Magazine Metal & Beer Fest 2025, showing the band lists for Friday and Saturday

    Decibel Philly Metal & Beer Fest 2025 Notes Part II: Day One, The Fillmore by J †Johnson

    Show us your spirit balls, it’s Part II of JJ’s Decibel Philly Metal & Beer Fest 2025 Notes. Read the piece.

  • Four chapbook covers featuring collages by Kayte Terry

    The 2024 Chapbook Series is now available!


    CDSOB’s first print chapbook series has arrived! Check out new collections from Juliet Cook, Christine Kanownik, Jonathan Minton, and Michael Sikkema! View the books.

  • A line drawing of a vintage projector

    Friday Feature


    Mini-reviews of horror movies, books, albums, and other cultural artifacts dropping every Friday.

    Now screening: Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person (2023)

Recent Work

In the Twilight Zone episode "The Man in the Bottle," Rod Sterling stands in the foreground facing the camera while in the background Mr. and Mrs. Castle stand looking worried in their antique shop

The Cat's Paw
by Julia Rajagopalan

Be careful what you take home from the black tent at the farmers’ market. Wait a second... We haven’t seen that tent before! Today, we present Julia Rajagopalan’s story, “The Cat’s Paw.”

Published April 21, 2025

A hand drawn heavy metal logo that reads CDSOB

Decibel Philly Metal & Beer Fest 2025 Notes Part I: Pre-Fest, The Foundry by J †Johnson

Horns up🤘🏼 JJ crushes & gets crushed at Philly’s own Decibel Magazine Metal & Beer Fest. This week, we feature Part I of their festival notes: Pre-Fest Thursday💀🍺

Published April 18, 2025

From the movie Don't Look Now, there is a photo of a church dais with a giant stained glass window. A mysterious red blood has spread over the picture

After Eden
by Daniel Beauregard

Find yourself a cup of tea or a glass of something & fall into the dizzy spell of this story from CDSOB regular Daniel Beauregard. You will come through it changed. Today, we are pleased to present “After Eden.”

Published April 14, 2025

From the X-Files, Mulder and Scully sit in an office and speak intently to each other. In the background is a poster with a UFO that reads, "I want to believe."

X-Files, S.4, E.21
by Daniel C. Remein

The truth is out there in Daniel C. Remein’s dual ekphrastic notation: “it must have been loud when the screen was eaten” might take us to “the cause of symptoms is a sharp thing” or it might well lead us somewhere else.

Published April 7, 2025

In The Thing, MacReady  stands with his hand held up in front of him. The other hand holds a gun as he leads a group of men to check on the dog kennel

Skull Brothers VS the Fog Monster
by Michael Sikkema

“There’s a reason there’s a skull in the baby stroller out front / OK but that motherfucker ain’t no harbinger.” Let’s all go to the sometimes room and respect the locals. Part Beckett play, part Night of the Living Dead, part paranoid Carpenter loop, total Michael Sikkema poem. Today we present “Skull Brothers VS the Fog Monster”💀💀🌫️👹

Published March 31, 2025

The cover of the book FantasticLand by Mike Bockoven, featuring a grainy image of a ferris wheel

Fantastic Life: Or, Disney’s Dream Debased by J †Johnson

Are you a Fairy or a Pirate is the wrong question, though we can’t help asking: Where were you when shit got real at FantasticLand?

Published March 24, 2025

In Bluebeard, a woman stands at a table with her hand resting at the temple of a decapitated head on a platter

Two Poems
by Marta Núñez Pouzols

While we await the arrival of the giant squid & watch for blue whiskers, we ruminate on a tale as old as the marriage plot, in two poems by Marta Núñez Pouzols.

Published March 24, 2025

A heavy metal inspired logo that reads, "Cul-de-sac of Blood"

Illustrations
by Chris O'Neal

Artist Chris O’Neal recently designed some new metal logos for Cul-de-sac of Blood. Today we present a selected gallery of Chris’ illustration work.

Published March 17, 2025